This thesis deals with different aspects of the processes of production of sociability
among the Xikrin-Mebengokré of the Cateté River, central Brazil. I focus on ceremonies and their performance, as ways of access to Mebengokré conceptions concerning the morality and aesthetics of social life. I analyse the semiotics of
‘kin’-ship production, the performative aspects of emotion as a sociability tool, the
use of song and dance for the co-ordination of collective technical tasks, and a
Mebengokré ‘theory of language’ as social agency. In the conclusion I focus on the
criticism of some of the key theoretical aspects of Ge ethnology, in the light of my
previous analysis.